


the absolving dark

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [35]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27068752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: rukafais: "hmm i think balance is necessary, yes! but i’d argue just because it’s not depicted as traditionally warm or friendly doesn’t mean it isn’t portrayed as its own kind of positive force, because darkness means an ending - for better or worse - and one of Hollow Knight’s major themes is also learning to accept an end and let go of the past."
Series: Clockie's Meta [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Kudos: 7





	the absolving dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts), [rukafais](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rukafais/gifts).



Anonymous asked: There seems to be a narrative in HK that light is bad and dark is good...

* * *

[rukafais](https://rukafais.tumblr.com): Yep! Entirely light-based beings are pretty much all bad or questionable in some way or another (with a kind of exception in Grimm, whose motifs trend more towards dark and light in balance and therefore he turns out pretty fine actually).

* * *

[radioactivesupersonic](https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/) replied:

At the same time, the dark is not necessarily depicted as warm or friendly. A lot of people are depicted as really uneasy about the dark- the Ancient Basin is really eldritch, and the Abyss and its ocean are initially extremely hostile to you. I wonder if it’s more like what you said about balance- the /balance/ is important. The more powerful void spells use a mix of Soul and Void.  
Even the creation of the Vessels calls attention to that with “Born of God and Void” - the two together.

* * *

[rukafais](https://rukafais.tumblr.com/post/184704521181/radioactivesupersonic-replied-to-your-post):

hmm i think balance is necessary, yes! but i’d argue just because it’s not depicted as traditionally warm or friendly doesn’t mean it _isn’t_ portrayed as its own kind of positive force, because darkness means an ending - for better or worse - and one of Hollow Knight’s major themes is also learning to accept an end and let go of the past.

Of all the forces we see in the game, it’s Void that’s _reactive_ rather than active. The ocean reacts only when you get close, the siblings only chase you when you get close to them and even then it’s implied they were only awakened by your presence; you have to stand in the bowl in the bottom of the Abyss to receive the Shade Cloak (and the statue there initially can be dreamnailed to have its dialogue read _“…Void… Power… Without unity…”_ ).

Even the Knight’s shade doesn’t react until you come close - despite being a part of them and presumably having a connection to them, it doesn’t necessarily seek them out like a laser-guided darkness missile. Without a catalyst, it just floats where it was formed, and more importantly _where it died_.

It’s worth noting that there are very few references to the concept of an afterlife or, religiously, what death means in Hollow Knight. But the Dream Warriors seem to recognise the Knight as something that allows them to rest/essentially absorbs their existence into themselves and brings them a measure of clarity and acceptance

_“Take us there, please. A place where light can not haunt us, a place without dreams…Please…”  
_

_“I am ready… to join you now. Brothers, you and I. Let us leave this place…  
  
…together… “  
_

_“Warriors, knights, kings, even time itself… they have no power over me. Only you.  
  
You are the darkness… come to consume me.”  
_

_“I know you will not flee. Wherever you go… I will be watching.”  
_

_“ My mind… it clears… Have we been… sleeping, child?  
  
Ahh… I remember. Those proud lords… were they truly monsters? I remember their eyes now… bright and clear. Why then did I fear them so?  
  
If there was madness in that village, it was I who brought it. They were right to cast me out. When I attacked, they were right to…  
  
They were right to kill…  
To kill… me…?  
…aah.”  
_

_“ Oh, stranger… you’re strong. Much stronger than me…  
  
I’ve been waiting a long time, stranger. I’ve been fighting a long time, stranger.  
  
I’m very, very tired! The Queen will be here soon, and I just need to sleep a little.  
  
Wake me when the Queen arrives, stranger. Perhaps the Queen will teach us both to fly, stranger! That… would be fun… wouldn’t it…?”  
_

actually pretty much every dead dream boss talks to you in some way (save the Broken Vessel who is entirely incapable of doing so, but they accept you regardless, and then I CRY FOREVER), explaining a little of their motivations and their lives. In this way, the Knight acts as a confessor, even if nobody else is around to hear it - they take the regrets of the dead and bring them absolution.

 **TL;DR** its at least sort of implied the void is essentially absolution and an ending to pain and suffering, for better or worse, and the Knight is kind of a little grim reaper boppin around as a mini-afterlife for all these sad ghosts

* * *

[radioactivesupersonic:](https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/184704982770/rukafais-radioactivesupersonic-replied-to-your)

Oh, I really like this! Especially the idea of ‘confession’ is interesting because in the case of the dream bosses- not the Warrior Dreams- both the Soul Tyrant and Failed Champion talk to you, but, in a way that suggests they’re not really seeing or acknowledging you, just unburdening their own hearts to the emptiness.

The Lost Kin, who can’t talk to you, is also the one whom, instead of ‘listen’, is tagged ‘accept’, but they also face Ghost directly and nod to them- and I think it’s interesting in the sense of what they’re _called_ \- to me, I feel like there’s implications that outside of they’re both vessels, it’s likely that Ghost and Kin knew each other personally before the latter’s death. There’s something to how the game encourages you to smack the lightseeds whenever you see them (even just for completing the Hunter’s Journal) and then since you _can_ attack the lightseeds coming for the Broken Vessel, it’s easy to be encouraged towards a kind of frenzied batting at them, even if you don’t get them all in time- which is _interesting_ because of the image it conjures of Ghost.

So in a way there might be something to the idea that Lost Kin is more of a two-way exchange, even if it’s voiceless, because it’s not _just_ Kin’s regrets that are being laid to rest there.

The Void ‘stains’, according to Jiji, and we see this in the many void-killed bugs- their corpses’ eyes are literally stained by the void- but this is likely an unnatural state, in the way that water stagnates when it’s being held behind a dam. In the Shade entry, the Hunter speaks, rather worriedly by his standards, wondering how long the kingdom can “bear the weight of so many past lives”.

But if the natural state of the void is fluid and potentially free-flowing, not lingering or staining but releasing, that could be that the void isn’t the destructive factor- but rather, that it’s the void’s nature to cling to regrets, and those who won’t make peace with their regrets thus can’t clear the void from themselves.

(This just makes me think of how I’ve seen a few people draw the Pale King with white hands but permanently void-stained fingertips. I think it’s a rather interesting idea- especially in the idea that he might assume it’s trying to eat his light, over the obvious reason why it would be clinging to an ostensibly perfect being)

And of course, the Snails, who seem the people closest to the void except perhaps Jiji and her mysterious masters (possibly the same as Jinn’s?)- all live inside of burial mounds. The main one you talk to, even when he asks you to kill the Elder Baldur, mourns it briefly before moving on- and the dead ones you find, the majority appear to be making a last request of sort, that, when you answer, nets you the power up. “Free me,” says the Crystal Shaman, “Hear me”, the overgrown one, and while the one in the Soul Sanctum has no dream nail dialogue, it’s a fair conjecture they want to be free. Even the shaman buried with Soul Eater has the request of “Let me rest”, and while it’s not a shaman’s, the Abyss Shriek is also answering a final request.

Which, when Team Cherry talked about Silksong’s quest journal, they phrased it as “Hornet having the choice to take on others’ wishes,” which is very interesting, given the Seer’s remark at one of the essence tears that “the dreams of this old kingdom are starting to stick to you”, as in, Ghost literally being a recipient of others’ hopes and dreams- largely gained through this confessional pattern. Even the Whispering Roots have something to say they’d like you to hear.

It would also suggest towards the void being a primordial creating force, given, again, Hallownest’s many natural caverns and the prevalence of ammonite shells suggesting an aquatic history- if the void is a force of ends, and, thus, a force of new beginnings, then when it’s able to flow the most freely- when it is bereft of regrets to cling to and stain, then it cut through and carved stone, opening new possibilities for life.

**Author's Note:**

> Analysis originally found here: <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/184704982770/rukafais-radioactivesupersonic-replied-to-your>


End file.
